Princess of the Wild
by dontwaitupxx
Summary: How could she be the princess of a kingdom that didn't exist? There was pressure growing from all sides: expectations for her to rise up and rule over a kingdom of ashes. But she didn't want that. She would never want that. So she ran. If her kingdom demanded she had to be the princess of something, then she would be the princess of the wild.


Princess of the Wild

By: dontwaitupxx

* * *

"_This one here is called the Silent Princess. It's a rare, endangered species. Despite our best efforts, we can't get them to grow domestically yet. The princess can only survive out here, in the wild. All we can hope… is the species will be strong enough to prosper, on its own."_

* * *

Zelda did not desire the crown.

And so she ran.

For one hundred years, she had been locked in battle with the Calamity Ganon in Hyrule Castle. For one hundred years, she had been stuck in the sanctum of the castle, unable to do anything as the agents of Calamity Ganon spread havoc on her land, burning bridges and destroying houses, killing countless citizens until the population had dwindled down to a fraction of what it had been before. Once, a thriving country, now dwindled down to sparse and few between villages and settlements; the remainder of her people struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

However, her view of the world for that century had been limited to Central Hyrule: namely, Hyrule Castle Town and the Hyrule Fields and the farms and ranches and villages that used to dot the landscape. Perhaps her view of the world was simply compromised, and once the hero was reawakened in the Shrine of Resurrection and defeated Calamity Ganon once and for all, she could see that the rest of the world had gotten out relatively unscathed.

If only she were to be so lucky.

Link had arrived to Hyrule Castle within weeks of him waking in the Shrine of Resurrection, and had made his way through countless Guardians and monsters to get to her, seemingly without even breaking a sweat. He made his way to the sanctum, and challenged Calamity Ganon. The Champions' spirits, piloting their Divine Beasts, then let out their unified assault against Calamity Ganon. It was now just up to the hero to deliver the final blow.

And he did.

Link performed his role as the hero perfectly. The Champions of the Divine Beasts, likewise.

The princess would then use her powers to seal Calamity Ganon away. But then, what after? What was expected of her?

Well, she was the princess. Her kingdom was expecting their queen.

But what was a queen without a kingdom to rule over?

As the hero and the princess rode onwards in the afternoon air, the kingdom finally free from Calamity Ganon's burning clutches, Zelda found that her hypothesis was correct. She lay claim to a throne of nothing; a kingdom of ashes. Everywhere she looked, she saw husks of buildings and what looked to be the faint outline of a road, now overcome by the wild and nature. The amount of surviving villages was miniscule, most of which was lost to the wild. In her absence, the remaining villages and providences had done well on their own in self-governance; who was she to impose?

She had had the title of princess since birth. Since birth, her future had been all but mapped out for her; she was never given another option as to what she was supposed to do. She was Zelda, Princess of Hyrule, the Goddess Hylia incarnate, who would awaken her divine sealing powers to seal away the prophesized Calamity Ganon away. No one cared that she was also Zelda, scholar and researcher, who possessed a passion for Sheikah culture and technology, who would have preferred to spend her days out on horseback, cataloging the different animal and fauna species in her notes and on the Sheikah Slate, and finding out new, undiscovered alchemical properties of frogs and the like. No one cared that she would rather spend her nights under the stars rather than cooped up inside the castle. No one cared.

She thought, perhaps her knight would care. One hundred years prior, they had gotten close, and looking back, she could call him a friend, perhaps her closest friend. But her friend was gone, lost to the wild, and in his absence was a shell of the man she knew before, with hardly any memory of who he used to be. She shouldn't have acted so surprised: she knew that the Shrine of Resurrection would most certainly deprive him of his memories. And yet, as he stood there, the question she had asked still weighing heavily in the air, he didn't even have to answer: the blank look in his eyes under his dark Hylian hood was answer enough.

She thought, perhaps Impa would care. Upon arriving in Kakariko Village, the town seemed incredibly welcoming to herself and the hero, celebrating their feat over Calamity Ganon. But none too soon was she pulled into Impa's home where Impa discussed her next steps in reestablishing the monarchy, about how she would need to travel and speak to the leaders of each of the villages and providences and gain their support, and following that, construct the beginnings of Hyrule's rebuilding, with her at the crown.

Impa never asked if this was what she wanted, and at the slight hesitation from Zelda, Impa stiffened and immediately reminded her of her duty to her people. It was not a question of if she wanted to do it or not. The kingdom was in shambles; that much the two of them could agree on, and they needed a strong leader at the center of it. She was the only one alive from the royal bloodline, and it was up to her to strengthen it, and in turn, Hyrule.

The brave thing to do would have been to bring all of her surviving people under her rule and to rebuild it from the ground up.

However, she was not a daughter of Farore. She did not possess courage like her knight did.

Now perhaps it wasn't that Zelda did not desire the crown; rather, she believed that she did not deserve it.

And so that's why she ran.

It was late, very late in Kakariko Village, and the entire village was asleep. Even Link, who in another lifetime, would have been watching beyond the princess' sleeping quarters, had turned in for the night, the lack of threat of the Calamity allowing him to turn down his defenses and sleep.

No one would notice the princess' absence until well into the morning, and by then she would be long gone. In the shadows of the night, the princess fled out the village's westward entrance, her pack light and a dagger at her hip. Had she thought this through, she would have grabbed the Sheikah Slate on her way out. She started out slow, keeping her movements quiet as not to alert anyone, but as she slipped out of the village, the high rock walls muffled her sounds, and the sounds of fireflies and grasshoppers and frogs masked her sound, and she broke off into a run, as fast as her feet would take her. As the walls around her opened up, she ran up the hill, until she came face to face with the one thing she was running away from.

The castle.

Her crown.

She took a sharp right and ran down the Sahasra Slope, northward bound she thought, vaguely oriented by the castle. It wasn't quite clear, even to her, where she was going. She had known these lands one hundred years ago, knew how to transverse them. But these lands now were only vaguely similar, and more than once she didn't recognize where she was. She knew she wanted to go away from Kakariko, away from the castle. Perhaps up towards the Akkala region would be best.

Zelda ran and ran, but misjudged her steps and where the ground was beneath her feet, and found herself tumbling to the ground, her left ankle twisting underneath her. Instantly, white-hot pain laced through her ankle, and she landed hard on her arm, tumbling part of the way down the Sahasra Slope. She lay there for a moment, disoriented, looking up at the night sky, noticing the skies were beginning to turn a sort of deep orange, a sure sign of morning. She had to keep moving.

She slowly moved up onto her feet and tested her weight on her ankle. It hurt slightly to put weight on it, but found that she could keep up a pathetic sort of limping jog with it without too much pain to it. She quickly found herself wading through the Lanayru Wetlands, the bottom of her trousers becoming instantly soaked through. It didn't matter though; she would keep moving.

She very nearly forgot what she was running from, but a quick turn towards the castle quickly reminded her. After one hundred years of fighting the Calamity Ganon, she was supposed to be free. She found that in this new world, she was still trapped. If her kingdom demanded that she be the princess of something, then she would be the princess of the wild.

And so she ran.

* * *

Link awoke with a start. All of his nerves were on edge, and he wasn't sure why. He looked outside his room at the Kakariko Village inn; the sun had just breached over the horizon. It was morning, and dawn broke with no threat of the Calamity Ganon. Hyrule was at peace.

Yet, something still didn't feel right to the hero.

He quickly got up, strapping the Master Sword to his back and grabbing the Sheikah Slate for good measure, and hastily made his way over to the princess' room at the inn.

He rapped his knuckles against the door. No answer.

A sickening feeling developed in the pit of Link's stomach, but he rationalized that the princess must still be asleep; after all, she had fought against the Calamity Ganon for one hundred years, surely she could still be asleep. He gently, carefully twisted the doorknob, careful not to wake her, and poked his head inside.

The princess' bed was perfectly made, as though she hadn't slept in it at all that night. The window, fully open, with the curtains moving in the wind, an unlit candle from the nightstand underneath it, knocked over onto the ground, as though in haste.

The princess was nowhere to be found.

_Yiga,_ Link instantly thought, his mind going into overdrive, and his body going tense, immediately searching the room for any other clues. The room was otherwise untouched, save for Zelda's white prayer dress dumped unceremoniously onto the dresser in the room, after Zelda being given a reasonable set of trousers, boots, and a tunic.

It couldn't have been the Yiga, he thought, because had it have been them, they would have just killed her. Even if they had taken her body elsewhere, there was no sign of a struggle in her room. The Yiga would have wanted him to know. They would have wanted to send a message.

Then where had she gone?

The rational part of Link's mind told him that she had just gotten up before him, and had left the window open from overnight. He quickly made his way downstairs and outside, searching around the village for any signs of the princess. He quickly checked by the cooking pot, up the hill by the shrine, any place where she might have gone in the early hours of the morning.

The princess had vanished.

He quickly grabbed Epona from the stables and saddled her up, quickly throwing himself over her. But then he was laced with his next question: which way would the princess have gone? Link silently cursed Kakariko Village for having two entrances. They had gone through the eastern entrance when they arrived. Beyond the eastern entrance was the Kakariko Bridge and Fort Hateno, littered with Guardians. Beyond the western entrance, it opened up to a panoramic view of Hyrule, and with it, Hyrule Castle. He truly wasn't sure which way she would have gone.

He took a leap of faith, and led Epona onwards towards the west.

* * *

Zelda shivered, despite the sun shining down on her. She was huddled up in the remains of an old fishing village; Goponga Village, if she wasn't mistaken by memory. This village too, like much else in Hyrule, lay in ruin, a blemish marking what was once her great land, now a land of literal ashes. Who knew how many graves she was sitting on? Who knew how many people had died one hundred years ago on that very island, screaming in terror as the Guardians came and completely annihilated everything and everyone they had ever loved? They would never be laid to rest, they would never receive a proper burial. And Zelda, who was supposed to protect them, who was supposed to seal Ganon away forever, had been one hundred years too late. She had failed.

She hadn't meant to stop, but the ruins of Goponga Village halted her right in her tracks, making her blood run cold. She wasn't sure if it was the Goddesses Powers or her own imagination, but she swore she could hear the sounds of children laughing and adults conversing, ghosts of a once quaint town. If she closed her eyes, she very well could imagine that they were there, among the living, However, looking around her, seeing buildings with one or two walls left standing, walls decaying, roofs nearly nonexistent, all overgrown by moss and plants and trees and weeds showed a village lost to the wild. There was nothing left to this village, and in time, no one would even remember this village had ever existed. It would be that these people were struck from history, without a trace of them to follow.

Which left Zelda huddled up in the husk of a house, her back at the corner of two walls, barely being kept up by their supports. She tried, hard as she might, to keep her emotions under control, to keep herself from mourning the loss of people she didn't know, of a village she barely knew outside of its coordinates on a map, but felt tear drops cascading down her face. She mourned for the Hyrule that once was and never would be. She mourned for the countless citizens of Hyrule that had lost their lives in the wake of the Calamity. She mourned for the potential of the Sheikah technology, that she had come to be so fascinated in, and truly still was, but in the blink of an eye, had been turned and used against them.

In the midst of this, she failed to hear the sound of scaly claws scratching against the ground, getting closer and closer and –

She felt something hard and scaly whip against her back, sending her sprawling onto her stomach. Adrenaline kicked in, and she immediately turned over onto her hands and knees and backed up from her attacker. She found herself face to face with a green Lizalfo, holding a Lizal spear in its hands, its eyes glowing purple and blank.

Zelda immediately went to grab her dagger she had brought from the village and held it in her right hand, the weapon feeling foreign to her. She had brought it only as a precaution, but she had never fought against any monster before herself, save for Calamity Ganon.

The Lizalfo was jumping left and right in front of her, figuring out how best to come in for its next attack. Zelda knew vaguely from studying the monsters while Link fought them one hundred years ago, that they would search for an opening, and then quickly scurry in and attack, before making its way back on the outskirts, maintaining its defense.

And the Lizalfo was wasting no time: it scurried in, its spear out in front of itself, and Zelda quickly dove out of the way, her left ankle protesting from earlier, but not quickly enough before the spear imbedded itself in her shoulder, having been aimed for her stomach. The Lizalfo pulled its spear out and dove back to the outskirts. Zelda clutched at the wound on her shoulder, the pain radiating through it. She could barely move her left arm, the pain making her dizzy.

She stood up, the dagger gripped in her right hand, trying to figure out how best to defend herself. She knew that running was out of the question: for one, the Lizalfo could run laps around her with how fast and agile they were, and two, she wouldn't be able to get too far too fast on her ankle. She had to stand her ground and fight.

No Princess of Hyrule would think to fight a Lizalfo. But perhaps a princess of the wild would.

The Lizalfo was jumping from side to side again, with seemingly no urgency to the fight. _Easy prey, _she thought dryly.

The Lizalfo came at her again, its spear coming in directly towards her stomach, and this time Zelda dove _under_ the spear, rather than to the side, and reached above her to grab the spear with her left hand, using it as leverage to hoist herself up so she was directly in front of the Lizalfo. She took the dagger in her right hand and dug it deep into the Lizalfo's chest, noticing methodically that she had missed its heart by a few inches. The Lizalfo screamed leaping backwards from her, and luckily she managed to keep a firm grip on the dagger, it sliding out of the wound with the leap.

Black ooze dripped from the wound, and the look in the Lizalfo's eyes went from blank to feral in one second. No longer was she easy prey and no longer was the Lizalfo going to fight carelessly.

For the third time, the Lizalfo came in, and Zelda thought to dive under the spear again. Now, the Lizalfo aren't very intelligent creatures, however, they are smart enough to recognize a pattern. Upon seeing Zelda slide under the spear once more, the Lizalfo jumped backwards. Zelda was then on her side on the ground, with the Lizalfo five feet away from her. The Lizalfo reached in again, and, flipping the spear over in its claws, knocked her in the head with the end of the spear.

Zelda was sent backwards, her head hitting the bottom of the pond, the water splashing around her. Black spots danced around her vision and she thought vaguely that she heard the sound of horse hooves galloping. She went to get up again, but stumbled, her head dizzy and her stomach queasy. She was knelt down in the pond and looked up. This time, the Lizalfo had abandoned the spear and was looming over her, purple eyes feral and its claws raised above its head, ready to slice down –

She heard the sound of metal scrapping against something dull, and the Lizalfo cried out in pain. She heard a thud against the ground, and the sound of water splashing around her. She carefully looked up, and saw her knight standing in front of her, Master Sword out in front of him, overlooking the now dead Lizalfo. Off in the distance, Zelda saw Link's horse, Epona, among the ruins of the village, grazing amongst the wild.

No sooner than she realized this, was Link suddenly in her line of vision, Master Sword already sheathed behind his back. She didn't remember him bending down to her and putting his sword away. Looking at him, she saw he had a hand behind her back, holding her up, and his mouth was moving, words being spoken urgently, though she couldn't hear anything outside of the ringing in her ears.

All of a sudden, she was back in the shell of the old, destroyed house, propped up against the wall, and Link was knelt in front of her, fiddling with the shoulder of her tunic. She didn't remember how she got over here. Slowly, the ringing in her ears lessened, and she found her voice.

"Link…"

"You're okay, Princess," Link whispered, ripping the sleeve of her tunic slightly, the movement of it jostling her. Zelda gasped in pain, "I'm sorry, Princess, I just need to get to your shoulder. Did the Lizalfo get you anywhere else?"

Zelda paused, trying to think back on it. In truth, she had trouble recollecting much from the fight, but she remembered the spear, "I… it hit me in the head with the back of its spear, I think."

No sooner than she said this, Link had her chin gripped in his hand, and his face was inches from her, searching her eyes intently. He gently let go of her chin, turning his attention back to her shoulder, "You should be fine, princess, but do me a favor and try not to pass out. At least until we get back to Kakariko Village."

_Back to Kakariko Village._ Instantly, her stomach clenched in panic, and she moved to get up, pushing up onto the balls of her feet. Strong hands gripped her upper arms, and she struggled briefly, before sharpness in her shoulder made her cry out, and she was placed back down against the wall. Link was looking at her with a steely expression, his eyebrows scrunched together.

"Princess, what's going on? Is someone after you? Did they take you from Kakariko Village this morning?" He paused, a dark look in his eyes, "Are they still out there?"

"What… no," Zelda panted, gripping her shoulder. Link went to loosen his hands. The look on his face was now one more of bewilderment, his eyes slightly squinted.

"Then what in the world landed you out here in the middle of a ruined village?" Link demanded.

Zelda was silent for a moment, unable to speak. Link stared at her for a moment longer with a hard look in his eyes, before he went back to cleaning and wrapping her shoulder.

He was in the middle of wrapping it when she said in a small voice, "I left."

Link didn't stop wrapping her shoulder, not quite comprehending her meaning, "What do you mean you left?"

"I was leaving for the Akkala region."

"Why were you leaving for Akkala?"

"I like Akkala."

"Well, I gathered that. If you had waited a couple more hours I would have been ready to go with you."

"I did not want to be followed."

Link paused, staring at her shoulder, that he had just finished tying off, "What do you mean?"

Zelda looked away, staring at the wall, "I did not want for you, or Impa, or anyone to know where I was."

Link then looked at her, and Zelda couldn't bear to look at him. She could feel his gaze on her, questioning, confused.

"Why?"

Zelda looked up at the destroyed ceiling of the home, trying to hold back tears, "You wouldn't understand."

"Oh yeah? Try me," Link said, daring to reach out towards her arms with his hand, lightly touching them, holding her, "Why didn't you want us to know where you were? Why did you go alone?"

Zelda breathed in heavily, craning her neck back towards Link. His eyes were pleading, questioning, earnest, and yet she knew that he simply saw her as his princess, not as Zelda.

He saw her as the heir to the kingdom; a kingdom of ashes.

"Because everyone expects me to be queen," Zelda blurted, and the rest came like a dam bursting, "Because had I stayed, Impa would have prepared me to rule this kingdom. Because I would be thrust onto a throne of nothing, ruling over a kingdom that doesn't exist anymore; a kingdom that I _failed _to protect: a kingdom of ashes and ghosts," she paused, a lone tear rolling down her cheek, "If I became queen, I would be reminded every day of the kingdom that I failed to protect, all because I couldn't awaken these damnable powers."

Link stayed silent for a while, a look of contemplation and nostalgia on his face. When he opened his mouth to speak again, he had a look of determination in his eyes, "Princess," he began, "…Zelda… a lifetime ago, you asked me what I would do if I realized that I just wasn't meant to be a fighter. But because I was born into the royal guard, I had to become a knight. You asked me if I would have chosen a different path than the one given to me, do you remember that?"

Zelda nodded, her eyes distant.

Link continued, "Well, you were born into the royal family. All your life, everyone told you that you would become Queen when you became of age, and so no matter what you thought, you had to become Queen. I want to ask you right now, if given the chance, what path would you otherwise take?"

Zelda contemplated this for a moment, "I think," she paused, "I would like to study the Sheikah Shrines and Towers, and compile my findings into books. I think I would like to go and rebuild these towns that were destroyed by the Calamity… but I would not want to be ruling over them. I would just like to be Zelda."

"Then do that," Link surprised her with the urgency in his voice, "Zelda, no one is stopping you from doing that. Yes, there are many people in this world that would want to see you become Queen, but no one can make you be Queen. And Zelda…" Link paused, looking into her eyes; "I won't follow you if you don't want me to. I guess my only request is you stick to the main roads… but the world is dangerous, still. There are still monsters and assassins and Yiga that would want to do you harm, and… I would go with you, if you would have me."

Zelda looked into the eyes of her knight, his eyes earnest, "Link… I don't want you to think you have to follow me out of duty…" she paused, "But if you were to go with me as my friend, I would have you."

"Yes," Link breathed, almost immediately.

"And I don't want to go back to Kakariko Village," Zelda added, "At least not yet. I know Impa means well, but I just don't want to face her right now."

"Done," Link said, "She'll get over it, anyways. From what I've seen since I woke, the world has done well enough governing themselves," Link stood up, reaching his right arm down to grab her uninjured shoulder, "Where to?"

"Akkala," Zelda replied, "I'm not quite sure what I want to see up there, but I remember summers are beautiful in Akkala."

* * *

"_What if… one day… you realized that you weren't just meant to be a fighter. Yet the only thing people ever said… was that you were born into a family of the royal guard, and so no matter what you thought, you had to become a knight. If that was the only thing that you were ever told… I wonder then… would you have chosen a different path?"_


End file.
